Besides achieving profitability and positive cash flow (as well as a $3.27 billion cushion in cash and equivalents at the end of FY16), BlackBerry’s software sales grew 24% quarter over quarter to $67 million, as the company won 2,200 customers, including many competitive displacements, said Executive Chairman and CEO, John Chen. They included:

Delta Airlines

First Great Western trains

Dignity Health

Tarpon Energy Services

The Government of Canada

Social Services Administration of Colombia

Australian Transport Safety Bureau

Essar Group (one of the largest conglomerates in India)

Sonora Quest Labs

Kyocera Mita

IMS Health

Specifically in the financial services industry, BlackBerry customer wins included SAIC, HSBC, Citizens Property Insurance, ERGO Insurance Group, Credito Familiar and the United States Government’s Internal Revenue Service (more on that below).

“There are many good things happening in the enterprise,” Chen said. “We are pleased with the progress we’re making.”

Customer interest in our other enterprise solutions. They include WorkLife, our solution to give enterprises a ‘soft SIM’ card to ease their financial management of employees’ BYOD phones, as well as the just-launched BlackBerry IoT Platform in medical and logistics industries. This builds upon our foundation in the automotive industry, where our closely-related QNX platform is the longtime market leader and has just been used in its 50-millionth car infotainment system.

The growth of BBM as a mobile commerce and advertising platform. BBM, which recently hit 100 million installations via the Google Play (Android) store, is already handling 20 billion ad requests per month, said Chen. We have also launched digital goods such as custom PINs (see a good summary of all our activity here).

More and more telecom carriers and other partners are selling our software to their enterprise customers. According to Chen, BlackBerry added 300 reseller partners in Q4 alone. For instance, both China Mobile Hong Kong and 3 Hong Kong (the mobile arm of Hutchison Telecommunications) are offering Enhanced SIM-Based Licensing (ESBL) from BlackBerry. This makes it very easy for enterprise customers to get the cost of BES12, our cross-platform enterprise mobility management (EMM) platform, integrated into their monthly subscribers’ bills. This eliminates the process of migrating licenses, consolidates their operational costs into a single invoice, and other things that big organization CFOs value.

Broad carrier support for our latest smartphones. Chen noted BlackBerry Passport and Classic are being carried in more than 7,000 retail stores by 160 carriers operating in 86 countries – numbers that should only increase, he added. “That is the best carrier support we have seen in a number of years,” he said, benefiting new devices such as the coming all-touch BlackBerry Leap (watch the latest video here).

]]>http://blogs.blackberry.com/2015/03/blackberry-turnaround-progress-7-positive-takeaways/feed/1Day Two Of Mobile World Congress 2015ericylaiTwo Affirmations for BlackBerry Security: UK Prime Minister David Cameron and Reaction to Hyper-Secure SecuTABLEThttp://blogs.blackberry.com/2015/03/two-affirmations-for-blackberry-security-uk-prime-minister-david-cameron-and-reaction-to-hyper-secure-secutablet/
http://blogs.blackberry.com/2015/03/two-affirmations-for-blackberry-security-uk-prime-minister-david-cameron-and-reaction-to-hyper-secure-secutablet/#commentsWed, 18 Mar 2015 17:02:48 +0000http://blogs.blackberry.com/?p=25303/ Read More]]>If you’re at the top, you’ve got to have the top equipment – no matter which side of the “pond” you happen to be on.

This was highlighted earlier this week by British Prime Minister David Cameron in a video interview with BuzzFeed.

As we reported last year, Cameron feels comfortable with his ability to handle anything on the go armed with his BlackBerry. “Wherever I am in the world, I am always within a few feet of a BlackBerry and an ability to manage things should they need to be managed,” he said.

He maintained that point in his BuzzFeed interview, saying “I have a BlackBerry which I use for work, which is very good for email.”

When pressed on the issue, Cameron reiterated, “They’re good. The Government has a BlackBerry service. They’re actually very good for emails and documents.”

There’s now a new tablet these leaders could add to their very small lists of approved devices: the SecuTABLET, also announced earlier this week as the result of a partnership between BlackBerry-owned Secusmart, Samsung and IBM.

A Secure Tablet, You Say?

Based on the Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5 running Android, the SecuTABLET is built with security designed to satisfy the special needs of government leaders and regulated enterprises.The same anti-surveillance technology behind the Secusmart Security Card’s encrypted voice and messaging, already used by Merkel and others in the German government, also secures the new SecuTABLET.

“Organizations deploying the SecuTABLET will be able to set policies controlling what apps can run on the devices, and whether those apps must be wrapped,” explained IBM Germany spokesman Stefan Hefter, as reported by the IDG News Service.

“The wrapping process – in which an app is downloaded from a public app store, bundled with additional libraries that encrypt its network traffic and intercept Android ‘intents’ for actions such as cutting or pasting data, then uploaded to a private app store – ensures that corporate data can be protected at rest, in motion and in use,” he said. “For instance, it can prevent data from a secure email being copied and pasted into the Facebook app running on the same device – yet allow it to be pasted into a secure collaboration environment, or any other app forming part of the same ‘federation.’”

As ZDNet’s Sean Portnoy writes, “As proof of just how secure the SecuTABLET aims to be, the German Federal Office for Information Security is currently putting it through its certification process to grant it a classified-level security rating.”

Can you say any of that about your garden-variety tablet?

And while the SecuTABLET costs more than typical Android tablets, Mashable declares that “for the global organizations BlackBerry is targeting, safeguarding high-stakes data is often well worth the cost.”

“BlackBerry has always been at the forefront of email on go, with its excellent physical keyboard now backed up by the impressive messaging handling of the BlackBerry 10 operating system,” it wrote. “The big advantage with the BlackBerry Passport is the firm’s excellent support for business users.”

The SecuTABLET renews our commitment to ultra-secure communications for those that need and demand it.

Hillary Clinton’s alleged use of a personal e-mail account for sensitive government communication has received lots of media attention. Clinton’s stated reason for using the private account was an unwillingness to carry two devices: one for personal use and one for work. TV pundits speculate on her motives and how mobile technology may have been used or abused. But if we move past the politics, what should we really take away from this situation?

First, security depends on humans, as well as technology, doing the right thing. POTUS could tweet top secret information but chooses not to. We must always think how to minimize privilege, including access to sensitive information. Secondly, technologists must make security easy to use — otherwise users will intentionally or inadvertently circumvent controls in order to get their jobs done.

]]>http://blogs.blackberry.com/2015/03/hillary-clintons-e-mail-lessons-learned/feed/0Featured Image -- 25251iotdavekYou Are What You Wear: How Smartwatches Could Become The New BYOD, And Five Steps You Can Take To Prepare.http://blogs.blackberry.com/2015/03/you-are-what-you-wear-how-smartwatches-could-become-the-new-byod-and-five-steps-you-can-take-to-prepare/
http://blogs.blackberry.com/2015/03/you-are-what-you-wear-how-smartwatches-could-become-the-new-byod-and-five-steps-you-can-take-to-prepare/#commentsFri, 13 Mar 2015 15:03:34 +0000http://blogs.blackberry.com/2015/03/you-are-what-you-wear-how-smartwatches-could-become-the-new-byod-and-five-steps-you-can-take-to-prepare/Inside BlackBerry for Business Blog:Earlier this week, the Apple Watch was officially launched. Although there was a great deal of…]]>

Earlier this week, the Apple Watch was officially launched. Although there was a great deal of fanfare surrounding the announcement, many observers remained unconvinced.

“At this moment,” wrote The Verge’s Nilay Patel just after the launch announcement, “it still feels like an awful lot of interesting ideas without a unifying theme.”

Here’s the thing, though – even if Apple doesn’t get it right, someone else will. As you can see from the chart below, the smartwatch market is already booming, and that’s just a sign of what’s to come. Last year, Samsung topped the market, closely trailed by startups such as Pebble and Fitbit and giants such as Sony, Lenovo and LG (the latter three all creating Android Wear-based devices, upon which our BBM communications app now runs).

In the coming years, it could be anyone’s game: the wearable computing market is projected to grow to 485 million device…

No surprise that Chen emphasized the ongoing expansion of our enterprise software portfolio. The new BES12 Cloud makes it easier for companies, especially small-to-medium-sized ones, to secure their iOS, Android and BlackBerry devices.

In line with our enterprise software focus, BlackBerry is working with partners to meet the needs of customers across several regulated industries that place a high value on security. In healthcare, BlackBerry announced 8 new healthcare apps and 5 customers using those solutions. One such customer is Hirandani Hospital of Mumbai, India. Dr. Pavan Kuman of Hirandani explained how a new telemedicine app running on BlackBerry devices, developed by UST Global, can help doctors diagnose rural patients remotely, avoiding long, costly travel for both parties.

BlackBerry COO Marty Beard was joined on stage by Billy Ho – EVP of Enterprise Products and Value-Added Services (VAS), Hans-Christoph Quelle, Managing Director and SVP, Secusmart (division of BlackBerry), and Greg Wade, VP of Enterprise Business Team, Samsung. This discussion dove deep into how BlackBerry is executing on our cross-platform strategy and delivering on our commitments with expanded features available for Samsung Knox, Vodafone secure call and BES12 Cloud.

Followed by this session was an introduction to the BlackBerry Experience Suite. Ketan Kamdar, BlackBerry Global Head of Device Portfolio, provided details on how the coming BlackBerry Experience Suite will take the power of BlackBerry’s productivity, communications, collaboration and security features – think BlackBerry Hub, BBM, WorkLife, and others – and infuse them across all smartphones, laptops and tablets, regardless of operating system.

BlackBerry Director of Product Marketing, Jeff Gadway, (above) gave a live demo of how WorkLife’s ability to split work and personal billing can help companies beset by BYOD. Split billing is available for voice calls and data usage.

BlackBerry’s 2015 Device Line-up

BlackBerry President for Devices and Emerging Solutions, Ron Louks, then took the stage and made the announcements many had been waiting for: the 2015 device roadmap. First was BlackBerry Leap (above) – the new 5-inch, HD device featuring 25-hours of battery life. At just $275 USD (much less on contract), the Leap, which will be available in April, targets young career builders who want to make a difference. Read detailed blogs and watch introductory and how-to videos for the BlackBerry Leap here.

Ron also dazzled the crowd by briefly showing off a new smartphone design that elicited “oohs” from the audience. Although not named yet, this device (referenced by John Chen as a “slider) (see above, or this picture at CNET), features a dual-curved, touch-screen display with a keyboard – all in a slim form factor.

]]>http://blogs.blackberry.com/2015/03/mwc15-recap-leap-to-slider-photos/feed/1BlackBerry Slider cleanalrehman81mwc recap1IMG_0731mwc recap3mwc recap4mwc recap5mwc recap6mwc recap 7BlackBerry Slider cleanMWC15: Media Praise for BlackBerry’s Cross-Platform, Cloud Software Moveshttp://blogs.blackberry.com/2015/03/mwc15-media-praise-blackberry-crossplatform-cloud-software/
http://blogs.blackberry.com/2015/03/mwc15-media-praise-blackberry-crossplatform-cloud-software/#commentsTue, 03 Mar 2015 00:16:58 +0000http://blogs.blackberry.com/?p=24951/ Read More]]>We’ve already made a slew of announcements at Mobile World Congress. My colleague Ali Rehman has the broadest recap. If I was forced to summarize all of them in one sentence, it would be: We’re accelerating our cross-platform, enterprise-focused software strategy. Or as our CEO John Chen put it: “I think there’s a much bigger opportunity to enable our software on other platforms.”

Press and analysts praised both the strategy and the tactics. Take our Sunday announcement that we are expanding our partnership with Samsung by bringing two key mobile enterprise services to Samsung’s Knox security platform: WorkLife, which enables companies to more easily track employees’ personal and work usage of their smartphones – key in the BYOD age – and SecuSUITE, the strong encrypted communications software that BlackBerry acquired last year. The two firms will also help sell each others’ offerings to its enterprise customers.

That makes sense, wrote the Wall Street Journal’s Ben Dummett. Samsung “stands to benefit from BlackBerry’s stronger reputation for mobile security. That could help it accelerate its efforts to expand in the enterprise market, where it has struggled to gain traction.”

CNET had a similar analysis, noting that “while Samsung dominates the smartphone world” its reputation among businesses “lags” behind “BlackBerry’s — particularly in the heavily regulated industries it wants to target with Knox. That’s where BlackBerry comes in.”

“[BlackBerry Enterprise Server] is still best in class,” Roger Kay, an analyst with Endpoint Technologies Associates Inc., told The Globe and Mail. “If they can package it in some new ways, that’s an attractive offering.”

Perhaps our biggest announcement was BlackBerry Experience Suite, a coming set of cross-platform applications targeting end-user productivity, security and collaboration. The Suite draws upon existing BlackBerry software, such as BlackBerry Hub, BBM Protected, Secure Work Space and more, but will bring them to iOS, Android and Windows devices.

It also drew some of the strongest praise.

The Register’s Andrew Orlowski: “BlackBerry’s strategy of offering secure and mature software to businesses in a world dominated by consumer-focused iPhone and Android platforms makes sense. While the consumer hardware advances every year, the software doesn’t, and lacks the maturity and security enterprises need. BlackBerry does, and can take advantage of its unique managed network to give it an advantage.”

“This is absolutely a good strategy,” said James Hawkins, president and CEO of RedHawk IT Solutions, a Woodridge, Va.-based solution provider offering mobile solutions, told CRN magazine. “I’m glad to hear they are focusing more of their business in the cross-platform space. It’s a positive development that mirrors what others are doing in the industry.”

GSMArena: “BlackBerry Experience Suite will bring the company’s traditional strengths, headed by the highly-regarded BlackBerry Hub to a wider audience.”

]]>http://blogs.blackberry.com/2015/03/mwc15-media-praise-blackberry-crossplatform-cloud-software/feed/2160519013ericylaibb experience components narrowContainerize This: BlackBerry Secures More iOS and Android Apps for Enterprise than Other MDM Vendorshttp://blogs.blackberry.com/2015/02/containerize-this-blackberry-secures-more-ios-and-android-apps-for-enterprise-than-other-mdm-vendors/
http://blogs.blackberry.com/2015/02/containerize-this-blackberry-secures-more-ios-and-android-apps-for-enterprise-than-other-mdm-vendors/#commentsWed, 25 Feb 2015 22:38:29 +0000http://blogs.blackberry.com/2015/02/containerize-this-blackberry-secures-more-ios-and-android-apps-for-enterprise-than-other-mdm-vendors/Inside BlackBerry for Business Blog:Do you still think of BlackBerry as one-platform company? Think again. We are completely cross-platform, and…]]>

Do you still think of BlackBerry as one-platform company? Think again. We are completely cross-platform, and have been so for several years. Android apps started running on BlackBerry phones in 2013. Last year our BBM mobile messaging shipped on all major platforms. And on the enterprise (BES) side, we embraced management of platforms such as iOS and Android in 2013, and Windows Phone last year.

Another case in point: the Secure Work Space feature that we introduced with the BES10 version of our Enterprise Mobile Management platform a year and a half ago. Secure Work Space is our version of a popular MDM feature called containerization, enabling work data and apps to be run separately from their personal counterparts.

Such neat partitioning ensures air-tight security for work apps, and privacy for personal apps and data. No wonder it’s such a popular feature for any IT manager managing devices using…

]]>http://blogs.blackberry.com/2015/02/containerize-this-blackberry-secures-more-ios-and-android-apps-for-enterprise-than-other-mdm-vendors/feed/0Featured Image -- 24788ericylaiBES12 Supports Google’s Android for Work, as BlackBerry EMM Goes Even More Cross-Platformhttp://blogs.blackberry.com/2015/02/bes12-supports-googles-android-for-work-as-blackberry-emm-goes-even-more-cross-platform/
http://blogs.blackberry.com/2015/02/bes12-supports-googles-android-for-work-as-blackberry-emm-goes-even-more-cross-platform/#commentsWed, 25 Feb 2015 22:32:18 +0000http://blogs.blackberry.com/2015/02/bes12-supports-googles-android-for-work-as-blackberry-emm-goes-even-more-cross-platform/Inside BlackBerry for Business Blog:BlackBerry today announced that it will be joining the Android for Work program with Google. This…]]>

BlackBerry today announced that it will be joining the Android for Work program with Google. This will enable our cross-platform enterprise mobility management (EMM) solution, BES12, to manage Android Lollipop devices equipped with advanced security features to separate business and personal data and applications.

Backed by BES12, Android for Work creates a secure, dedicated profile for business data and applications. The BES12 solution will seamlessly integrate with the Android OS to enable platform-level containerization. This will eliminate the need for application wrapping, while providing unhindered access to Google Now and any Android application available on Google Play for Work™ that is permitted by an organization’s IT policies.

Android for Work focuses on three key themes:

Enhanced security: New Android security features aimed at protecting business and private data

Simplified management: New features to simplify IT administrator experience across both BYOD and corporate-owned devices

]]>http://blogs.blackberry.com/2015/02/bes12-supports-googles-android-for-work-as-blackberry-emm-goes-even-more-cross-platform/feed/0Featured Image -- 24783alrehman81Part 1: How BlackBerry Blend Saved My Bacon…Twice Thrice!http://blogs.blackberry.com/2015/02/blackberry-blend-saves-the-day/
http://blogs.blackberry.com/2015/02/blackberry-blend-saves-the-day/#commentsTue, 24 Feb 2015 16:31:35 +0000http://blogs.blackberry.com/?p=24750/ Read More]]>There’s been much ado recently about a mobile IM provider flipping the proverbial switch to enable their offering on desktop. The fact that BlackBerry Classic, Porsche Design P’9983, and BlackBerry Passport users have been accessing BBM on desktops and tablets via BlackBerry Blend for months, aside – I want to explore how BlackBerry Blend is an oft unsung solution with deep features and broad implications, not only in personal applications, but in the IT management world as well.

“Waterloo, this is D.C. – is my Passport plugged in?”

Part one of my story begins on a sunny, albeit moderately cold, autumn morning. I was on my way to D.C. from Waterloo to show off the yet-to-be-announced BlackBerry Passport to the media, and brief them ahead of the upcoming launch.

Shortly after I landed, I realized that I was missing my BlackBerry Passport (not the now-famous demo device with dummy accounts that you get treated to in this video series). I would have rather left my right arm … or so I thought (I’m left-handed). This is the part of the story where those of you already using Blend can stop reading – you know how it ends.

I’m on the edge of my seat. What did you do next?

As it so happens, we were also launching a solution called BlackBerry Blend, which allows you to access content from your BlackBerry across multiple devices like PC, Mac, Android, and iOS tablets. Even though my BlackBerry was roughly 800km away, I was able to access all of my important data. I called my lovely wife to ensure it was plugged in, then…

I was able to see all my calendars in the BlackBerry Hub (yes, personal (Gmail) and work (Outlook), and Facebook birthdays, all in one view).

I managed both my personal and work email inboxes all day. All without having to use my corporate VPN, which can often be flaky in less-than-perfect WiFi conditions.

Transferred a presentation that was on my BlackBerry in Waterloo to my laptop in D.C.

I made touristy plans with my friend (who doesn’t have BBM, ugh) over SMS. Text messages to the lay person.

So even without my BlackBerry in hand, I was in lockstep with all of the communications, files, and data that were coming in. It’s important to note that BlackBerry Blend works on WiFi, mobile network (cellular), or wired via USB. My next installment explains why.

Stay tuned to learn what happened when I forgot my BlackBerry in the car.

Part 2:If you forgot your phone in a car like this, would you run back to get it right away?

Part 3:
Crushing the inbox at 35,000 ft. (Airplane via USB)

]]>http://blogs.blackberry.com/2015/02/blackberry-blend-saves-the-day/feed/0Dons tripdonnyhalliwellDons tripAn International Anthem for Security Assurancehttp://blogs.blackberry.com/2015/02/international-anthem-security-assurance/
http://blogs.blackberry.com/2015/02/international-anthem-security-assurance/#commentsTue, 10 Feb 2015 18:53:39 +0000http://blogs.blackberry.com/?p=24524/ Read More]]>Reports on last week’s breach of Anthem Inc. claim the attack could have been much worse, as the health insurer was storing PII (Personally Identifiable Information) and PHI (Personal Health Information) in the same database. Hackers could have taken PHI but chose not to. And none of this data was encrypted.

(Note: David Kleidermacher is the new Chief Security Officer for BlackBerry. Learn more about him here.)

Anthem operates Blue Cross and Blue Shield health plans in 14 states; it held the records of 80 million past and current members and employees. Anthem will be bludgeoned by the press for a while and eventually state it has addressed its problems. After hackers exposed the account information of 77 million members of Sony’s PlayStation network in 2011, Sony said the same thing. Late last year, hackers took Sony down again.

Some will say better regulation is needed. In the U.S., the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and HIPAA are but two of many government attempts to enhance privacy protection and raise the cybersecurity bar. Anthem is merely the latest event to expose the insufficiency of these standards. For those who may not have read the Federal Trade Commission’s brand new guidance on cybersecurity for Internet of Things (IoT), here are a few of the ‘groundbreaking’ statements:

“companies should test their security measures before launching their products”

“Congress should enact general data security legislation”

Does anyone believe government guidance is going to end our assurance crisis? Anthem is part of the larger healthcare challenge where insurers, caregivers, and patients are embracing an increasing range of access methods – from mobile devices and connected medical equipment to the wearables and sensors of IoT. Connection sprawl is exacerbating the problem.

We need robust end-to-end security solutions that enable enterprises to manage and protect all endpoints and the information that flows and resides across them and the cloud. At BlackBerry, our reputation for end-to-end security excellence is the result of a corporate-wide high assurance security culture (why I joined the company!) built over years and applied consistently to devices, the BlackBerry cloud infrastructure, and our applications and services.

But society should not trust the word of enterprises claiming great security. Let this be a call to arms, an international anthem if you will, for industry, academia, and governments to join together with BlackBerry to foster cybersecurity standards that deliver meaningful assurance. We desperately need it. The general population lacks confidence in the ability of enterprises to protect critical data and functions because no effective international standard for ensuring confidence in this protection exists. Raising assurance is the only way to get ahead of attackers instead of always remaining behind them, to prevent breaches instead of picking up the pieces after them.

If your organization wants to join BlackBerry in this initiative, drop us a note at highassurance@blackberry.com. And until this becomes reality, enterprises evaluating IT solutions must not blindly accept vendor security claims, no matter how well established that vendor’s brand (remember when RSA spilled SecurID tokens). Dive deep into the vendor’s assurance evidence and demand proof from independent experts.

BlackBerry announced today that David Kleidermacher (left) has joined us as our new Chief Security Officer.

David’s security expertise is considerable, spanning more than 20 years in strategy and product engineering focused on operating systems, high assurance software development techniques, mobile device security and the Internet of Things (IoT). He literally wrote the book on security for embedded systems: Embedded Systems Security: Practical Methods for Safe and Secure Software and Systems Development. He’s also authored articles and whitepapers on everything from bringing mobile devices up to military spec to connected cars. Read his first blog for Inside BlackBerry on health insurer Anthem Inc.’s data breach.

David comes to BlackBerry from Green Hills Software where he was Chief Technology Officer. During his time at Green Hills, he led the team that developed the company’s market-leading INTEGRITY high reliability real-time operating system. INTEGRITY was certified by the NSA at EAL6+ High Robustness Common Criteria SKPP — the highest security level ever achieved for an operating system. It was also certified by the FAA.

In other words, David knows security.

As our CEO and Executive Chairman John Chen said, “David is an outstanding addition to our best-in-class security team, and he will help extend BlackBerry’s gold standard of security as we work with customers to meet new cybersecurity challenges. In particular, David’s knowledge of securing the Internet of Things and embedded systems will be invaluable as we execute on our strategy and continue to expand our management of the world’s mobile endpoints.”

That matters to BlackBerry; we have a long-standing commitment to advancing mobile security and protecting customer data and privacy. In fact, we have more than 70 government certifications and approvals — more than any other vendor. And, we’re the only provider to offer encrypted voice, text and messaging.

David will be instrumental in maintaining and elevating BlackBerry’s gold standard in security and will take our best practices, experience and technologies to advance the BlackBerry IoT Platform to scale to the level of security that the Internet of Things demands.

“If you think we have a big security problem with a billion smartphones, think what will happen when we have a trillion autonomous objects,” David said. “I think BlackBerry is uniquely positioned to meet this challenge head on and I’m excited to be part of it.”

As CSO, David leads our Global Product Security organization, which is responsible for efforts including security-specific research and product development, and BlackBerry’s product certification and approval program.

Welcome David!

]]>http://blogs.blackberry.com/2015/02/introducing-new-blackberry-cso-david-kleidermacher/feed/1kleidermacher 1 smallinsideblackberryblogkleidermacher 1 smallHow BlackBerry Security Begins At The Endpointshttp://blogs.blackberry.com/2015/02/how-blackberry-security-begins-at-the-endpoints/
http://blogs.blackberry.com/2015/02/how-blackberry-security-begins-at-the-endpoints/#commentsTue, 03 Feb 2015 16:23:24 +0000http://blogs.blackberry.com/2015/02/how-blackberry-security-begins-at-the-endpoints/Inside BlackBerry for Business Blog:Modern IT systems are extremely complex and securing them can be very difficult. BlackBerry works with…]]>

Modern IT systems are extremely complex and securing them can be very difficult. BlackBerry works with a wide variety of systems and services, from BlackBerry 10 to Android to the Internet of Things. So how does BlackBerry secure them all? It all starts at the endpoints.

Mobile devices serve as the main endpoints for enterprise mobility. These smartphones and tablets have evolved immensely over the past few years, with power and functionality quickly approaching that of a desktop computer. Consider that the new BlackBerry Passport features a Quad-Core 2.2 GHz CPU, 3GB of RAM, a 13 MP camera that can record full 1080p video, and hundreds of thousands of apps through BlackBerry World and the Amazon Appstore for Android.

The power and complexity of mobile devices highlights the need for integrated security. But while most people focus on the OS, the security of BlackBerry is actually embedded in the…

]]>http://blogs.blackberry.com/2015/02/how-blackberry-security-begins-at-the-endpoints/feed/0Featured Image -- 24427amanea2What Happens When A Couple’s Phone Goes Missing? They Get It Back, Intact, With BlackBerry Protect.http://blogs.blackberry.com/2015/01/blackberry-protect-comes-to-rescue-for-couples-lost-phone/
http://blogs.blackberry.com/2015/01/blackberry-protect-comes-to-rescue-for-couples-lost-phone/#commentsThu, 29 Jan 2015 16:00:34 +0000http://blogs.blackberry.com/?p=24333/ Read More]]>How many times have you misplaced your phone or had it go missing?

The mere thought of having your photos, memos, contacts and other personal information gone forever (or in someone else’s hands) is enough to make the average person sick with anxiety.

For one man and his wife, BlackBerry Protect recently proved invaluable in reuniting them with their missing phone.

Just Like Anyone Else

Andrew and Teresa Schito are a pretty normal family; they married a few years ago and are now raising their young son in their hometown of Waterloo, Ontario in Canada.

The Schito family. Credit:Andrew Schito

If the name of that city rings a bell, it’s because it also happens to be the home of BlackBerry, where Andrew works, while Teresa serves as a Communications Coordinator for the Region of Waterloo itself.

Teresa’s personal smartphone is a BlackBerry Z10. It’s full of baby pictures, just like any other new parent’s would be.

For Teresa, Andrew’s familiarity with BlackBerry’s mobile security features came in handy in a way they probably didn’t quite anticipate.

“My Heart Sank… I knew it was Gone”

It all began as a typical day (they always do) for Teresa – heading to swimming class at the local community center with her baby.

“I arrived at the community center and sent a text to a fellow mom friend that I’d arrived,” Teresa explains. “She met me at my car, and I threw my Z10 in the side pocket of my diaper bag, grabbed it and the baby and headed inside.”

When Teresa reached into her bag to grab her phone for a quick photo, however, it wasn’t there.

“I told my friend, ‘Hey, I can’t find my phone!’ while proceeding to rifle through my diaper bag,” she says. “I thought, maybe I left it in the car, but my friend was adamant she’d seen the phone in my bag when I was walking into the building.”

Unfortunately, it wasn’t in the bag or the car, or anywhere around it.

“As soon as I opened the car door, my heart sank because I didn’t see it. I knew it was gone,” she says.

She left Andrew a voicemail and headed home, dejected.

“The drive home had me thinking about all my pictures, and I started to get very upset,” she recalls. “Months’ worth of pictures and videos of my little guy growing were potentially gone. It was heartbreaking.”

“The Phone is on the Other Side of Town”

When Teresa finally got the news to Andrew, he knew right away what to do.

“When my wife told me her phone was missing, I immediately logged onto the BlackBerry Protect site (protect.BlackBerry.com) to lock the device and track it.”

Good move.

Andrew enabled a message on the wayward phone directing any potential finders to call him, along with the relevant contact number.

BlackBerry Protect also let Andrew and Teresa view the location of the device, play a sound, display a message on the device, lock the device, and even wipe it if needed, changing the situation from a hopeless one to an actionable one. (BlackBerry Protect is found on all BlackBerry 10 devices and already enabled by default on the BlackBerry Passport and Classic).

It was BlackBerry Protect’s location-tracking feature that let Andrew and Teresa track her phone to a mixed-use building across town.

(This is the point where we remind you to let the authorities handle retrieving a missing device if someone else has it, just to be safe. There’s a chance your phone was just found on the side of the road, but it’s still the best course of action, and the police are trained to handle this sort of situation.)

“We waited a while, and it hadn’t moved in 40 minutes,” says Teresa. “I called the police from the location and explained the situation again. They said they would dispatch an officer and to wait, so I parked on a side street and waited.”

Andrew then arrived and went into the convenience store to speak with the owner. When he came out, the police arrived.

“The officer asked us what we wanted him to do,” relates Teresa. “He seemed skeptical we would get the phone back because of similar lost phone cases. I told him I didn’t care so much about the physical phone. I could always get another BlackBerry, but it was the photos on the phone I wanted.”

A Great Idea Built into BlackBerry Protect

The next bit is somewhat ingenious:

“Andrew asked the officer if it would help if he could make my phone ring while he’s at the apartment, and the officer said that would be much better,” says Teresa.

“I used BlackBerry Protect to play a loud sound on the phone,” Andrew says. “While outside the apartment, we were able to hear the tone and confirmed the phone was in that apartment.”

Thankfully, the phone was given (without incident) to the police, who returned it to Teresa – contacts, memos and photos intact. The person with the phone said they’d found it “in a snowbank.”

“All I can say is: Thank goodness for BlackBerry Protect!” Teresa says with relief. “I know a lot of people who have lost their phone, and they lose all their pictures and everything with it and then end up just buying a new phone. I’m so thankful I didn’t have to do that.”

“We also will back up our pictures on our devices more often now,” Andrew adds.

If you have a BlackBerry 10 device, you should complete the steps below to turn on BlackBerry Protect – it just might reunite you with your phone! (Remember, it’s enabled by default on the BlackBerry Passport and Classic.)

On your home screen, swipe down from the top of the screen

Tap Settings followed by BlackBerry Protect

Set the BlackBerry Protect switch to On

For a complete overview, check out the BlackBerry Protect page HERE, and be sure to watch the video below.

It’s Monday morning, and you’re back in the office after a much-needed weekend. The last of your coffee has brought the first glimmer of energy and you’re finally caught up on all of that email. You check your watch; 15 minutes before the next meeting – just enough time to login and pay off your credit card account.

You hope that the bill is under $500 this time, but you’ve never been particularly good at keeping track. Click, type, click. Let’s take a look at the damage.

New Charges: $19,384.22

Your confused disbelief is a mere calm before the storm of fear, denial, and helplessness that will grip you for far longer. How can this be possible? What should you do? Will anyone help you?

Individuals are rarely targeted when it comes to large-scale efforts of theft and fraud. Rather, it’s the many organizations that have, use, and hold your financial and personal data – organizations that are increasingly the targets of organized and powerful attacks by hackers.

Over the last 30 days, the following businesses – omitting the multitude of platforms, Point of Sale software, back-end servers, and network infrastructures – were provided with access to my credit card and banking information, quite often from a mobile device:

The term “risk mitigation” boils down to this: Your business, and the businesses that you transact with every day, can’t afford to ignore the reality of the security landscape when it comes to mobile data.

BlackBerry is passionate about designing, developing, and upholding a standard that can be trusted. We’re providing an information session where businesses can learn more about the realities of the current landscape. And, more importantly, how to protect themselves, their customers, and their reputations by leveraging exciting new enterprise solutions recently unveiled by BlackBerry.

Don’t miss the live event at 11:00am Eastern Time on Tuesday, January 27th.

]]>http://blogs.blackberry.com/2015/01/how-online-financial-hackers-are-stealing-from-your-wallet/feed/0Financial data theftlukereim1Financial data theftCrippling Cyberattack Left Sony Pictures Executives Scrambling for BlackBerry Deviceshttp://blogs.blackberry.com/2014/12/sony-rebuilt-email-using-blackberry-devices/
http://blogs.blackberry.com/2014/12/sony-rebuilt-email-using-blackberry-devices/#commentsWed, 31 Dec 2014 18:32:04 +0000http://blogs.blackberry.com/?p=24046/ Read More]]>When its corporate e-mail servers were taken down by hackers last month, Sony Pictures was able to rebuild mobile e-mail access for its executives only via BlackBerry devices, reported The Wall Street Journal and the New York Times on Tuesday.

Sony “unearthed a cache of BlackBerrys, which still worked because they send and receive email via their own servers,” reported the Journal. The BlackBerry devices, along with other tactics, were key to the efforts of Sony’s IT department to keep its 6,000 employees productive in the aftermath of the cyberattack, which took down computers and landline phones during Thanksgiving week, as well as resulted in the temporary halting of the distribution of the movie, “The Interview.”

Only BlackBerry e-mail continued to work for executives at Sony Pictures (Los Angeles headquarters pictured here) after a cyberattack crippled its e-mail servers.

“Maybe companies will need to hire some more IT people and actually think about managing their data. If not, this will happen again, more often than not,” he wrote. “Calling up the folks who sell BlackBerry Enterprise Server [BES] might be a start.”

“For a theoretically dying company, BlackBerry has been very busy,” writes independent analyst Maribel Lopez in her Forbes column earlier this week. In fact, 2014 was ” a good year for BlackBerry,” she writes, due to our many “accomplishments” against our stated path of evolving into a full-fledged enterprise software and services firm.

Lauded in a new independent report by Blue Hill Research, BES12 “demonstrates its ongoing focus on enterprise-grade solutions through supporting multiple operating systems, devices, applications, and content. BES12 also delivers the deep mobile security that BlackBerry has traditionally supported. Blue Hill believes that BES12 provides BlackBerry with a new opportunity to become the centralized hub and ‘Command and Control Center’ of mobile management activity within the enterprise by supporting security and technology demands at a cost-effective price point.”

BES12 introduces a new, modern architecture that consolidates control of all mobile endpoints into a single, easy-to-use console, and is designed to make it easy to upgrade from a BES5 or BES10 environment. Read on or skip to the Slideshare document in the middle of this post which you can download in full.

Simplified Application Management

“BES12 is now a fully integrated multi-vendor Enterprise Mobility Management solution,” reads the report. “It is the most comprehensive end-to-end mobile security solution.”

Blue Hill Research cites the importance of application management, which it refers to as “an extremely hot topic in enterprise mobility, as both enterprise and individual users have become accustomed to downloading apps to solve any problem that could potentially involve a phone or tablet.” It praises BES12’s multi-platform approach that simplifies device and application management.

Top-Flight Security

And security? Blue Hill praises BlackBerry on that front, writing, “BlackBerry deploys encryption at every layer in the stack for end-to-end security.” BlackBerry’s “unique secure boot sequence with a hardware root-of-trust” prevents tampering, which stands in contrast to other vendor solutions.

“Considering the ease with which other device management and device security solutions have been jailbroken, avoided or removed due to their lack of embedded chipset security controls, this root-of-trust is vitally important as a core security value proposition for any smartphone or tablet that is tasked to be secure and compliant,” the report asserts.

BES12 Makes Good Financial Sense

Also important is that fact that BES12 makes for a relatively easy upgrade when coming from BES5 or BES10, which can be critical for regulated industries striving to maintain compliance with government standards.

As Blue Hill states: “Financial executives, especially in companies where mobility is a significant enabler or operational line item, should also be aware of the new BES12 announcement, since it represents a potential opportunity to quickly upgrade vital compliance and governance areas with little to no investment.”

The report continues, “Even if your financial officers are not holding a BlackBerry in their hand, it doesn’t mean that they cannot access BlackBerry-level security associated with BES12 [since] BlackBerry’s BES12 [secures] iPhones, iPads, Android devices, and Windows Phone devices.”

Preparing for a Secure Future

Blue Hill believes BES12 is the EMM solution for the future (and the present):

“BES12 was designed to meet the goal that was thought to be BlackBerry’s long-term destiny: the best end-to-end security solution for enterprise mobility. In embracing this vision from a scalable, unified, and multi-platform perspective, BlackBerry has put a strong step forward for technical, financial, and line-of-business executives considering key mobility initiatives and projects in the near future.”

The flaws, which have been around for nearly 3 decades, are “really not much of a surprise” to Christoph Erdmann, Chief Technology Officer of Secusmart, an anti-surveillance vendor that BlackBerry acquired last week.

And the widespread encryption used by 3G and 4G cellular technologies such as GSM, CDMA and LTE do not protect against hackers intercepting and listening in/reading on mobile calls and texts.

“These disclosures have once more underpinned the fact that a system is only as secure as its weakest link,” says Erdmann, who is now Senior Vice-President of BlackBerry’s Secure Voice division. “In this case, the discovered vulnerability of SS7 undermines the privacy of billions of phone calls made every day via the global communications networks.”

Deutsche Telekom has said it is trying to step up to mitigate the problem as much as possible. But it’s unclear how much effect a single carrier can have, both for its own customers or others, due to the sprawling, interconnected nature of the worldwide network.

“The dilemma with this is that those systems are hard to replace as they are globally connected while at the same time the technology for attacking those systems, as demonstrated by the German researchers, becomes cheaper every day,” says Erdmann.

What Enterprises Can Do

Organizations can and should go ahead and protect themselves, however. They should seek a communications service or solution that offers end-to-end encryption and authentication, says Erdmann. These over-the-top (OTT) services, so-called because they transmit over the communication networks of large carriers but not under their control, keeps your conversations, messages and e-mails safe from any underlying network vulnerabilities.

Or as Erdmann puts it: “It is the only way to make sure that communication remains trusted and secure between two endpoints even if they are connected via an insecure network.”

The Secure Productivity Bundle, at $6/user/month, allows employees to stay connected and access data regardless of their location while ensuring that sensitive information is protected the entire time. It includes:

Priced at $12/user/month, this bundle is available to enterprises with BlackBerry 10, iPhone and Android devices. Read the blog for more info or visit the BlackBerry Enterprise Store at BlackBerry.com.

BES12 Keeps Winning Enterprise Customers

Released just last month, the latest version of our enterprise mobility management (EMM) platform, BES, is gaining converts.

We also announced the coming conclusion of our BES migration program, EZ Pass. Through EZ Pass, we issued a total of 6.8 million BES licenses, up 100% from 3 months ago, to 4,900 enterprise customers. One-third of those licenses were issued to enterprises trading in licenses from competitors. The program ends on December 31.

One example is financial services firm Ocean Capital Investments, which moved off rival MDM solution MobileIron to BES12 for managing its BlackBerry and iOS devices. It joins Mackenzie Health, Tata Energy, Bombardier, Rocco Forte Hotels as confirmed BES12 customers (here are some other BES12 fans). In total, there are nearly 300 organizations that have deployed BES12 or plan to deploy it within the next 12 months, CEO John Chen said last week.

This confusion may be the reason that, in spite of the fact that mobile device management (MDM) has been adopted by 50% of organizations within the United States, penetration within those organizations is still relatively low (in other words, not as many users in these companies are being managed through MDM/EMM solutions as you’d expect).

What’s making it so hard? Several things.

Competing internal demands: Decision-makers are looking to address a range of needs all at once. Among them: security, flexibility, scalability, extensibility, integration, and simplicity. As IDC puts it: “Many struggle with how to mobilize in a way that is coordinated, secure, scalable, efficient, and user-friendly, and that addresses an often extraordinarily diverse set of management scenarios.”…

]]>http://blogs.blackberry.com/2014/12/idc-why-enterprises-are-failing-at-mobile-management-and-emm/feed/0Featured Image -- 23298alrehman81You Can’t Run the World’s Most Powerful Nation Without Your BlackBerry, President Obama Discovershttp://blogs.blackberry.com/2014/11/you-cant-run-the-worlds-most-powerful-nation-without-your-blackberry-president-obama-discovers/
http://blogs.blackberry.com/2014/11/you-cant-run-the-worlds-most-powerful-nation-without-your-blackberry-president-obama-discovers/#commentsFri, 21 Nov 2014 18:42:49 +0000http://blogs.blackberry.com/?p=23132/ Read More]]>Who rushes out the door to work before his morning coffee and forgets his BlackBerry in the house?

This guy (thumbs pointed at self). And, evidently, that guy:

Source: Getty Images

The media were rife Friday morning with pictures of President Barack Obama sprinting back from the Presidential helicopter back into the White House to retrieve his trusty, secure phone (here’s a video).

As the Wall Street Journal described it: “President Barack Obama is still a BlackBerry fan. The president’s attachment to the device was on full display Friday. Mr. Obama left the White House and crossed the lawn to get on Marine One, the first step in his trip to Las Vegas for an immigration speech later in the day. But he quickly got off the helicopter and headed back into the White House. He told reporters: ‘I forgot something.’

After re-emerging from the White House, he said: ‘Didn’t you guys ever forget something?’ Asked what he forgot, he held up his phone. ‘My BlackBerry,’ he said as he got back on Marine One.”

That Obama. Forget for a moment that he’s the leader of the world’s most powerful nation. He makes the same regular-guy mistakes as the rest of us.

Obama is far from the only world leader choosing us. As we’ve noted on this blog, UK Prime Minister David Cameron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt are among the world leaders who are known to use BlackBerry devices. Merkel uses a BlackBerry Q10 specially-augmented with voice encryption technology from our recent acquisition, SecuSmart.

Personally, I’m a little surprised Obama got all the way to the helicopter before running back in. As a professed CrackBerry addict, wouldn’t he have missed this immediately?